Shareholder attitudes have hardened against Sir Richard Broadbent, chairman of Tesco, one day after the grocer revealed it had overstated its first-half profit by £250 million.

“Before this week, I would have said the chairman was safe. A new chief executive has just been appointed and there was no need for more job moves. But now there is a question mark over him,” said a top-10 shareholder.

One top-25 investor said “the focus has moved on to the chairman in a way that wasn’t there before. His comment that ‘things are always unnoticed until they’re noticed’ seemed a little bit flippant.”

Yesterday Alan Stewart, Tesco’s new finance director, was parachuted in early to steady the ship. Meanwhile Kantar Worldpanel figures showed sales declining at the steepest rate since the consumer research group began compiling grocery market data in 1993.

In another blow, Tesco also said its South Korean unit was being investigated over the handling of customer data.

Chief executive

Dave Lewis, who took over as chief executive three weeks ago, has said that the overstatement related to an estimate of first-half profit of £1.1 billion, which was issued in August alongside the retailer’s third profit warning in as many months. He has asked four senior managers to step aside, including Chris Bush, UK managing director. He has also called in Deloitte and Freshfields to investigate the matter. Asked on Monday whether he would resign over the matter, Sir Richard said: “Shareholders will have to decide whether I am part of the solution or part of the problem. My intention is to continue to be part of the solution.” But the focus on him has intensified amid questions over Tesco’s financial oversight when it issued the August profit warning. Laurie McIlwee, as part of his resignation in April as finance director, was asked by former chief executive Philip Clarke not to attend the Tesco offices unless he was required, according to two people familiar with the situation.

He has not been asked to attend and has not been involved in Tesco’s financial oversight since its interim results in mid-April.

With the resignation of Mr McIlwee and Mike Iddon, group finance director for planning, treasury and tax, in May, the finance function has been run by a committee reporting to Mr Clarke, according to people familiar with the situation.

Although Mr Clarke was in the office, he was working his notice after being ousted in July, these people said. He left after the profit warning in August, and Mr Lewis took over.

Other shareholders stressed that the chairman was not directly responsible for the auditing error.

They said more important questions centred on PwC’s role and why there was such a large overstatement in profits. – Copyright the Financial Times Ltd 2014